Here be dragons - an integration shopping list

Application integration has become the 'philosopher's stone' for many indus trial companies. Many integration projects have succeeded in solving the pr oblem they set themselves, but left the problem of integration unsolved. Th e integration of applications for a complex design environment is particula rly rich in such projects. In the author's experience, a broader view of in tegration is needed, and several complementary models of integration are de scribed, together with a list of 12 different design issues that integratio n projects need to resolve. It is not claimed that a project covering all t hese features will succeed, but rather an absence of a feature is an indica tion that the project will fail.